Anti-Dump Effort Is Not Elitist

I would like to correct an impression created by your recent articles regarding the efforts by the Coalition to Stop Weldon Canyon Dump. The Times mentions that actors and actresses residing in Ojai have joined the coalition, as well as property owners concerned about a drop in property values.

The effort to “dump Weldon,” however, is not as elitist as your reporting would have us believe. More than 2,000 people packed into Nordhoff High School’s gymnasium on April 23 to protest this project. I didn’t recognize any celebrities there. But there were teachers, nurses, mechanics, merchants, doctors, teen-agers, retirees and assorted others who are all concerned about the quality of the air they breathe, not the resale value of their homes.

The heavy pollution of massive amounts of dust, toxic gases, and airborne organisms of such a mega-dump, in addition to the emissions of hundreds of trash trucks daily, would negatively impact all of Ventura County, which currently records the ninth-worst air quality in the nation.

JILL SMITH SHANBROM

Ojai